Iowa WBB enters the AP poll at No. 22

It took four polls and six wins, but the Iowa women’s basketball team is finally ranked in the AP Top 25 for the first time in the 2024-25 season. After a defensively dominant 72-43 win over Washington State yesterday, the Hawkeyes entered the AP poll at No. 22 overall.

This is the first AP poll ranking for Iowa this season. The Hawkeyes spent the entire 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons in the AP Top 25 and were ranked No. 2 overall for several weeks last year.

Although Iowa finished last season as the NCAA’s runner-up to No. 2 seed South Carolina, the 2024-25 season began unranked due to last year’s team’s significant drop in production following the departures of Caitlin Clark, Kate Martin, Gabby MarshallAnd Molly Davis. But behind it Villanova transfer Lucy Olsenincreased roles for Addison O’Grady, Hannah Stülke, Kylie FeuerbachAnd Sydney Affolterand an exciting first semester course (incl Taylor Stremlow, Ava HeathenAnd Teagan Mallegni), the new-look Hawkeyes have picked up where last year’s team left off and started the season in impressive fashion.

The full AP Top 25 is listed below:

Iowa is one of eight Big Ten teams ranked in the Top 25 this week, led by newly ranked No. 1 team UCLA after defeating South Carolina over the weekend. The other six Big Ten teams ranked are USC (#6), Maryland (#10), Ohio State (#11), Illinois (#19), Oregon (#21) and Nebraska (#25). No other conference has as many teams as the Big Ten, with the SEC ranking second with seven teams.

NEXT: Iowa will travel to Cancun to compete Rhode Island and BYU this weekend.